Introduction
Rightie'o, hello everyone and welcome to my first non-monetary contribution to MMOwned. I searched the forums for this particular gold making tip that I've made quite a lot of gold from since release, but couldn't find anything.
This gold making guide / tip is rather specific as to which class and profession it works best for, but basically any herbalist and/or miner will be able to make a profit doing this route. However, the most optimal combination is a druid with herbalism and mining.
With the release of Cataclysm, prices on trade goods are bats**t crazy on most realms and are fluctuating like hell, so I'm not going to bother claiming that you'll make "5000 gold per hour" doing this (but that is what I've been making on my realm).
The Specifics
The things that we will be farming as Herb/Miner druids this time are the following:
Stormvine - Herb
Azshara's Veil - Herb
Volatile Life - Elemental trade goods
Obsidium Ore - Ore
The real money makers here are Azshara's Veil and Obsidium Ore (for my realm anyways). During the first week of Cataclysm, I was selling stacks of Azshara's Veil for up to 500g each and Obsidium Ore at even more than that (and I didn't start doing this until day 4). The prices have stooped tremendously since, but the stacks still move at around 250-350g each. Also, the mats can be transformed into other items that will also sell well (eg I made two stacks of Handful of Obsidium Bolts and sold them for 150g for each individual HoOBolt).
How do we do it?
Grab your druid. Get the glyph named Glyph of Aquatic Form. Get the quest to go to Vashj'ir, and do the 1-2 quests needed to learn the spell Sea Legs. Once you've learned Sea Legs and have glyphed Glyph of Aquatic Form, enjoy your 450% swim speed. Now it's time to get down to business and start mining / herbing.
Where specifically do we do it?
Glad you asked. Vashj'ir is divided into 3 major zones; Kelp'thar Forest, Shimmering Expanse and Abyssal Depths. You can do this in all 3 of them, but my definite favourite is Abyssal Depths. I seem to be getting heaps more doing my lap there than in any of the other zones.
Sooo, what's the specific route you recommend?
Basically, what I do is to take the green route 2 laps, then pop down the red route once, green route 2 more times, etc... The pink dot is a rare elite named Shok'Sharak who drops a pair of lvl 85 plate boots (that goes for around 2k on my realm), nice spot to check out every 20 minutes or so (there are herb/ores there as well, so you won't lose anything doing it).
The Route
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10 min of my grinding
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Nice bonus rare-elite loot...
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Gold per hour (even though I don't like "claiming" this and that)
(based on the prices at 7.30 AM on my EU Realm, 1 week after Cataclysm release)
Azshara's Veil - 300g per stack, I average about 10 stacks/hour
Obsidium Ore - 300g per stack, I average about 10 stacks/hour
Volatile Life - 8g~ each, I average about 80/hour
Stormvine - 120g per stack, I average about 6 stacks/hour
3000 + 3000 + 640 + 720 = 7360 gold
Final ramblings...
As I mentioned before, any herb/miner can do this route with the 450% Abyssal Seahorse mount, but the reason why a druid is so insanely superior to other classes doing this is because we can:
a. Herb in Aquatic Form
and
b. Enter / leave Aquatic Form regardless of being in combat or not
Especially if you're doing this route as a lvl 80~, you will pull aggro - several times. The mobs hit hard, you might have crappy gear, you're likely to die. If not, you still have to either kill or slow-swim away from the mobs that you've aggroed. As a druid? Pffft, cyclone that pest, mine/herb your stuff and swim away. Being griefed by another player? Pffft, exit/re-enter Aquatic Form and swim away.
I'm sorry that the guide sorta... turned into wall of text, but it's my first guide ever and I wanted to make sure I got all the info down. Also, it's almost 8 am, and I've been farming all night so I'm kind of tired...
Good luck and enjoy!